A Tattered Soul
by PleasegiveMeaPenname
Summary: A little over a year has passed since what is now called 'The Final Battle', and the DWMA has been restored to what it should be. But, the Kishin is still alive, though severely weakened. He lives on the streets of Death City, being unable to cross the desert. One night, a girl named Emilia finds him and takes him in. Once she learns his true identity, she is determined to help him
1. Chapter 1

The streets of Death City were quiet and cold at night. In most places, this would be when witches and pre-kishins came out of hiding. However, there were none in Death City, as it was filled with not only meisters and weapons, but Death himself, and not even the most powerful of witches was stupid enough to put themselves in his direct reach, especially after the defeat of the Kishin Asura. Most people were asleep, and most of the shops were closed. The only places still open were bars and clubs.

Emilia Townsend, a fairly average girl walked through the streets in a clearly oversized black hoodie. Death City may be warm during the day, but it was in the middle of the Nevada desert, so it was quite chilly at night. Her skin was tan, and her dark brown curls barely escaped the front of her hood. Her every footstep echoed back to her off the brick walls of the buildings surrounding her. Her feet hurt with each impact on the cobblestone path. She had just gotten off work five minutes ago, and was walking home. They had been so busy during her shift that she never got a moment to just sit down and rest her feet. She was appreciative all the same of her job at Deathbucks, though, as she needed to money to pay for her utilities, food, and other miscellaneous things. She was just glad she didn't need to pay a mortgage. She lived in a small condominium complex, and the one she lived in was left to her by her father. She didn't really remember him all that well, as he had been kicked out of her mother's house when she was four because he was a weapon. Her mother was a low-level witch who could only affect the mind. So basically, she could create illusions to get away from meisters and weapons who saw her. She also could help people get to sleep, or briefly alter emotions. None of her abilities were suited to combat, so she was an outcast among witches. But since she was a witch, she was an outcast among the rest of the world, as well. Her mother, thus trusted no one with any supernatural abilities, weapons and meisters least of all. So, she had kicked her father to the curb.

She had been treated rather nicely, for awhile. Her mother taught her how to use her magic, which was connected to the soul. Emilia could alter soul wavelengths, making weapons stay in one form for awhile, or temporarily throwing off the compatibility of a meister-weapon pair. This was incredibly difficult, though, and took a lot of energy to perform, so it was useless in a fight. She COULD, however, adjust what soul wavelengths looked like to outsiders, though. It was like the common soul protect spell, however it only limited the strength of magical abilities instead of shutting them down altogether. There was also greater variation to it. It could be used on other people, for example. She could not only make a soul look human, but make it seem to disappear entirely. Granted, that typically wasn't much use, but hey, maybe an assassin would like it. Her mother had taught her to control these abilities, and encouraged her to test her limits with them. It was a good time in her life.

It all ended too soon, though. At twelve, Emilia had accidentally partially transformed, and revealed that she had inherited her father's weapon blood. Her mother changed after that. She was beaten every time she transformed. She was never given any food, and was forced to sleep in the basement, locked in every night with nothing but a small drain as a bathroom. It took her about three years to figure out how to sneak food and water for herself, so until fifteen, she subsisted off the often expired leftovers her mom threw her. She was surprised she hadn't gotten sick and died from the rancid food, honestly. It was at sixteen that she was summoned by city officials from Tallahassee to receive her father's last will and testament. She had to sneak out to go to city hall, and sneak out again after she got her meager things packed for her journey to Death City. She had stolen change from her mother for a bus, and only wrote a note saying 'bye, bitch' to notify her of her daughter's absence. She smirked. The last good memory she had from Florida.

Too lost in her thoughts of the past, she didn't notice the cat stretched out on the path in front of her and she stepped on it's tail. It let out a loud yowl, and she jumped back in surprise, cursing as she fell onto her butt. She scowled and got up, rubbing her now-sore behind. She looked up and found that she had arrived at her home. She silently thanked the cat for startling her, as she otherwise would have walked straight past.

She brushed the dust off her butt and took a step towards the steps. She stopped, however, when she saw a thin form scurry behind one of the dumpsters on the corner. She cautiously stepped forward, and soon saw that it was a person. They were very tall, but so thin they looked like a breeze would snap them in half. Looking closer, she saw that it was a man. He wore nothing but long, pale scarves wrapped around important areas. His face was fully covered, so she figured he was blind. She furrowed her brow at his lack of clothing. It was forty seven degrees! She took off her hoodie and tried to hand it to him. He flinched, and didn't move to take it.

"Come on, you need this, or else you're gonna freeze out here," she said.

He still made no move to take it. Emilia frowned and put it on the ground. She backed up and sat down on the ground cross-legged with her hands held up in plain sight. It took about a minute for him to inch forward. She almost gasped once he was in the light. He was absolutely emaciated. His abdomen caved in at his rib cage, and every rib there was plainly visible. She could see both bones in his lower arms, as well as his legs. It reminded her of herself before she came to Death City. She barely avoided gasping again when the scarves moved. He picked up the hoodie with them and started examining him. Emilia desperately tried to think of a reason for those things to move. She eventually settled on the idea that he was a crippled weapon, probably a flog or whip of some sort who got stuck partially transformed. It would explain his scarf-thingies and also the fact that he was clearly homeless. After roughly five minutes he wrapped the hoodie around his shoulders like it was a blanket. Okay, not the way it's supposed to be worn, but I suppose that works. Emilia thought. She slowly stood up, and he seemed to stare at her through those scarves. She walked up to the door and opened it.

"Please, come inside. It's freezing out here. At least come in for tonight. I'll give you food and water, if you let me," she said.

He inched forwards, and eventually followed her inside. She tried to gesture for him to go ahead of her, but he refused. She started closing the door, and only then did it seem to register that he had to move out of the way. He kept his head turned towards her the whole time, though. She started going up the stairs, and he followed. He seemed quite paranoid, refusing to turn his back on her even for her to just close that front door.

She reached the top of the flight of stairs and broke off to the left, going down a hallway. The carpet was a dark, dirty blue, and the walls were a neutral gray. The doors were all black with silver doorknobs and knockers shaped like Lord Death's mask. Not exactly welcoming, but it wasn't hostile, either. They passed six doors before they got to hers. She patted her pants pockets and realized that she didn't have her keys. She looked at Asura, who tensed.

"Don't worry, I just need my keys. I think they're in the pocket on that. You mind giving them to me?" She asked.

He used his scarves to slowly take the keys from the pocket, and instead of giving them to her, he examined them from every possible angle. It took thirty seconds for him to be satisfied that they weren't some sort of weapon of mass destruction. Emilia held out her hand for the keys, but he simply dropped them on the floor in front of her. She frowned, and bent to pick them up. She figured his aim must be off, since he seemed to be blind. She stood back up, and selected the correct key out of the two she had. She put it in the lock, opening the door. She stepped in, and took off her shoes. She turned around to see the man still standing in the doorway. She beckoned him in, and he warily crossed the threshold.

"Can you shut the door, please?" She asked.

The man complied, pulling the door shut behind him. Emilia smiled and went to her room to get some blankets and pillows for her guest. Her house was modest, with the living room and kitchen separated by only a half-wall. Right past the kitchen and living room was a hallway leading to the bathroom and two small bedrooms. The first was her own, with a bed, a desk, and a small bookshelf she kept any knickknacks she gathered. Right now, it was limited to a small jar of shiny pebbles, a few bird feathers, a small bird skull, and a paper crane she'd found on one of the tables at work. The other room was used for storage, in a sense. Or it would be, if she had anything other than a couple blankets to store.

Once she had the blankets, she walked back out into the living room and dropped them on the couch. She looked towards the strange man, who hadn't moved from his precious spot just inside the door.

"Okay, you can sleep here tonight. The blanket is gonna smell a little weird, but that's just because it hasn't been used for a while. In the morning, I'll make you breakfast. Sound good?" He didn't reply. "...okay, well uh...goodnight, I guess."

Emilia walked awkwardly back to her room. She changed into her pajamas, quickly brushed her teeth in the bathroom, then got into bed. She couldn't help but think that this guy was quite odd. Hopefully he wouldn't cause her too much trouble.

Emilia woke up to sunlight streaming through her thin blue curtains. Honestly, it was a nice way to wake up on weekends. No need to worry about getting up earlier than she wanted. She slowly sat up, stretching her arms above her head. She shifted so her legs were hanging off the side of the bed and inched her feet into her slippers. She shuffled out of her room, heading straight for the kitchen. She opened the fridge and took out a package of eggs. Taking four out, she set them aside and put the carton back in its proper place. She went into a cupboard and took out her frying pan, setting it on the stove. Turning to another cupboard, she shuffled around before she found the cooking spray. After spraying the pan, she put the can back and turned the stove on. While waiting for it to heat to a sufficient level, she got out a spatula from a drawer and a couple plates from a third cupboard. She skilfully cracked the eggs into the now hot pan and proceeded to scramble them. After she finished, she split them evenly between the two plates. She then put two pieces of bread in the toaster. They popped up after one and a half minutes, and she buttered them evenly, putting one on each plate. She retrieved forks from one of the drawers, and put both plates on the table.

"Hey, breakfast is ready!" She called out.

She soon realised that this was a bad idea, however, as she heard what sounded like a chair being knocked over. She winced, and the strange man peered around the corner, his mouth set in a frustrated line.

"Sorry…" Emilia said. She pointed to his plate. "I, uh, made you some food."

He gingerly took the plate and poked at the food with his finger, looking confused. Emilia sighed and to show him that it was NOT poisoned, took a bite from his plate.

"See? It's fine. Now eat, you're starved." She said.

He simply put down the plate and looked at her. "You truly have no clue who I am, do you?" He said.

Emilia was surprised when he spoke. Not only because he hadn't said a word previously, but because his voice sounded perfectly healthy. It was medium-deep and very smooth, with no trace of any weakness. He should sound very weak, with the state his body was in. But she needed to focus on what he said. How was she supposed to know him?

"No….should I?" She replied warily.

The scarves around his head cracked open, revealing the rest of his face. He had black hair, with a white eye-like pattern on the ends. He had red eyes, with another white eye-like spot around each pupil. He also had a third eye in the middle of his forehead. Emilia put all this together after a few moments, and before she could make sound, she was tied and gagged with his scarves, which felt like they were made of skin.

She was with the Kishin Asura.

A/N: Hey, guys! I tried writing this a few years ago, but I was forced to delete it by my parents once they found out I had been using study hall to do it…

Well, I'm back under a new pen name and as a high school graduate, so I have all the time in the world! Please enjoy, as I feel my writing style has improved over the years. :)


	2. Chapter 2

Emi was terrified. The man she thought was a homeless, crippled weapon, was the Kishin Asura, who was supposed to be dead. He stood there, glaring at her, with an insane smirk on his face. He let the scarves tighten some more, and Emilia whimpered at the pain. It felt like if he tightened them anymore, her bones would crack. She was very confused. He was supposed to be dead, killed by her friend-slash-tutor, Maka Albarn, a year ago. How had no one realised he was still alive? She was broken from her thoughts by Asura speaking.

"Strange that you only recognised me by my face, but that doesn't really matter. You are going to help me," he said, inching closer, "You are going to hide me, as long as I want. You tell anyone, in anyway, I pour my madness into you until your pitiful heart stops from fright. The same will happen if you scream when I release your mouth, understood?"

Emi nodded frantically and he released her mouth, but kept a scarf against her neck, most likely as a threat. She gasped for breath, and barely kept her volume to a whisper.

"Yes, yes, I'll hide you! Please, just…..don't kill me, don't hurt me, don't hurt anyone! Please! I promise, I won't tell anyone! Just let me go!" She begged.

Asura's smirk grew to a grin and he dropped her to the floor. He leaned down to her and grabbed her face, forcing her to look at him.

"Glad we understand each other." He whispered.

He let go of her, and went back to sit at the small kitchen table. Emi was still struggling to breath normally, and her mind was going a million miles a minute. She was now harbouring the Kishin, who was supposed to be dead. Not going to Lord Death with this information could get her executed, but if she did, then she'd just die by Asura's hands. She struggled to come up with an idea as to what to do. She was about ready to commit to telling Lord Death when something occurred to her; Asura hasn't actually hurt her. Sure, he tied her up, but she quite honestly would have done the same in that situation. He hadn't caused any actual damage to her person yet, and he had ample opportunity to kill her and eat her soul while she was sleeping. But he didn't. She also remembered how she found him the night before; terrified. He was more scared than she ever could be. She didn't quite get why, though. He had already made it abundantly clear that he could easily kill her, so it's not like she was a real threat to him. It took a moment for her to remember something Maka told her, on the anniversary of the school's founding.

Kid had been moody, so she had asked if Maka knew why. Maka has told her that it was because it was the one year anniversary of Asura being revived, whom they all later found out- Kid included- was technically Kid's brother. Emi has been dumbstruck and asked how that was possible. Maka explained that Asura's creation was an accident, and Lord Death had been trying to make himself a better leader to the people of the world by removing the part of his soul that held all of his fear. However, the fragment he broke off became Asura. Emi questioned what exactly happened after that and Maka shrugged. She said that no one really knew, all they did know was that he eventually swallowed his weapon in a fit of paranoia and had started consuming human souls after that, thus becoming the Kishin.

Emi guessed that he was probably just so desperate to not be afraid anymore, he tried to cover it up with madness or something. If what she had seen of him so far was any indication, though, it hadn't worked. She knew something that would work, though; her magic. One thing her mother taught her was how to effect emotions. However, since her magic had to do with the soul, her effects were permanent. If she wanted someone's emotions to go back to what they were, she had to do it herself. She could remove his fear and destroy it, so it wouldn't become its own soul, unlike what Lord Death was able to do. Besides, if she could….cure him, so to speak, Asura wouldn't kill her and neither would Lord Death. The worst that could happen would be her being expelled from the DWMA. Plus, Asura would get to live and maybe even be happy. That thought settled her mind. She would help the Kishin Asura.

All of her thoughts and doubts took about thirty seconds to reach a conclusion, and she simply looked up at Asura who was simply sitting at the table, watching her from the corner of his eyes. Emi stood up shakily and looked right back at him, observing that he hadn't touched the toast and eggs.

"Aren't you going to eat?" She asked.

Asura simply scoffed. "I don't need to, so why risk being poisoned?"

It's not like poison would really affect you anyways, being a Kishin and all, but alright. Emi thought. She let it go, though. She got the feeling that it was a bad idea to argue with the Kishin if she wanted to keep all of her body parts intact. She walked over to the counter and grabbed her own food, putting it the microwave to reheat it a bit. She took it back out and ate it, mourning the utter waste of what was supposed to be Asura's food. After finishing her own food, she takes Asura's plate from in front of him and dumps the eggs and toast into the garbage. He was looking at her with a suspicious look in his eyes, like he was expecting her to somehow produce some weapon by throwing food in the trash. Emi rolled her eyes.

"You made it clear that you aren't gonna eat, so I wasn't about to just leave the food there for no reason." She explained.

Asura narrowed his eyes, but seemed to accept her explanation. Emi went out to the living room and sat down. Now seemed as good a time as any to try the spell. She closed her eyes and concentrated. She was lucky that her and her mom didn't need verbal incantations like other witches, otherwise Asura would have her head. However, the trade off was having to have expert control of her soul wavelength, otherwise she'd expend energy, but nothing would happen. She carefully removed some fear from Asura's soul. It was roughly the equivalent amount to that of a normal human, but for Asura, it wasn't even a thousandth. Removing that much from him was like poking a hole in a 100 pound block of clay with a toothpick. It didn't make any sort of noticeable difference. Emi decided that she had a lot of work cut out for her. This would take forever. Emi struggled to open her eyes again, as the spell drained quite a bit of energy from her. Not enough to make her pass out, but enough to make her tired. The more she removed at once, the more energy it took. Luckily, she would fully recover in a couple hours. With the help of coffee. She forced her eyes open just to jump in surprise. Asura was standing right in front of her, glaring at her.

"What are you doing?" He demanded.

Emi was confused. "...napping?"

Asura narrowed his eyes. "Why? You slept last night."

"People can be tired even after sleeping for the whole night. Especially if something stressful happens to them." She said pointedly.

Asura huffed and went over to the chair on the other side of the room, plopping down in it and putting the scarves back over his face. Emi was curious as to why he hid his face. Most people knew what he looked like underneath, and even if they didn't, the scarves were very recognisable. So it wasn't for any sort of disguise. Maybe it just made him feel better? Emi gave up trying to find a reason for it- it was the Kishin for crying out loud, there probably wasn't a reason for it. She got up and went to the kitchen to make a cup of coffee for herself. One of the perks of working at Deathbucks was she got free coffee.

She carefully spooned the grounds into the filter and put it back. She got her mug, filled it with water, and poured it in. She pushed brew, and waited. After a couple long minutes, it was done. She grabbed the carafe and poured the contents into her waiting mug. She opened the freezer and grabbed an ice cube, and carefully plopped it in to cool the black liquid to a manageable temperature. She picked it up and took a sip of the life giving drink. Then promptly spit it all over the counter as she glanced at the clock and saw that she had ten minutes to get to work.

Emi frantically ran into her room and put on her 'uniform', which consisted of jeans, a plain green v-neck, and green visor with the store logo on it. She struggled with her shoes in her haste, and barely remembered to run into the bathroom to grab a hair tie. As soon as her hand reached the doorknob, however, she was prevented from leaving by Asura. She whirled to face him, and he was still across the room.

"Where do you think you're going?" He asked.

"I need to go to work. I'm already gonna be late." She replied.

Asura didn't relent. "You can stay here."

Emi sighed in frustration. "No, I can't. If I don't go to work, it'll be suspicious. I haven't missed a day of work since I started. Besides, I need the money it gives me for bills, food, and other necessities. If I don't work, I don't get money, which means I won't be able to pay the bills, which means I'd have no lights, no running water, and no electricity in general. Then people will be worried about me and come looking to see what's wrong. Then they'd find you. So yeah, I need to go to work."

Asura scowled, but finally let her go. She thanked him and ran out the door, making sure to lock it behind her. She glanced at her phone and saw that that entire exchange took five minutes. She cursed and ran faster. She was so dead.

—

Emi wanted to scream in frustration. She had mixed up her start time with another day's shift. She came in three hours early. She was supposed to arrive at noon, but had shown up at nine fifteen instead. She had run her fastest and tripped three times, so her knees and elbows were covered in bandaids. They were busy that morning, more so than usual, so had asked her to start early, since she was there anyways. It was now one, and she was finally able to take her break. As she sat down with a muffin, which would be her lunch for the day, she saw Maka Albarn waving her down from a corner table. Emi smiled and walked over to Maka's table and sat with her friend and tutor.

"Hey, hows it going, Maka?" She asked.

Maka smiled. "Oh, you know, same old same old. Not too much going on with me. How about you?"

Emi groaned. "Not too great. First I mixed up my shifts and ran here because I thought I was late, but it turns out I came three hours early, and since it was busy, they made me start when I got here."

Maka gave her a sympathetic smile. "Ugh, that sounds awful. Sometimes I'm glad that I have money from missions and Blair so I don't have to go through all that. But sometimes I want to get a job to know what it's like."

Emi scoffed. "You're not missing much, trust me."

Maka giggled. "Oh! I just remembered! Are we still doing that spring break get together?"

Emi choked on her muffin. Maka, concerned, gave her a few hefty smacks on her back to help dislodge the breakfast cake. Emi coughed it up onto her small napkin-plate and took a few deep breaths.

"Are you okay?" Maka asked.

"Yeah, yeah, just….give me a sec." Emi took a couple more deep breaths. "Okay, I'm good now. Yeah, we're still on for that. It was April twenty sixth, right?"

Maka nods, smiling. "Yep! Tuesday! Remember that Black*Star is coming so make about twice as much as you normally would." She joked.

Emi laughed. "Oh, believe me. I learned that lesson last time." It had been awful. He ate his food, all the extra, and Tsubaki's share.

"Emilia! Get back on bar, would ya!?" Her manager called.

Emi sighed and got up. "Well, guess my break's over. You have a good day, Maka."

"Thanks, you too." Maka waved to her retreating form.

Emilia clocked back in and looked at the calendar. It was February thirteenth, and spring break started on April twenty third. It took a couple minutes for her to do the math, but she came up with 76 days. 76 days to get Asura ready enough to handle the presence of the ones who 'killed' him. It sounded like a lot of time, but for this particular task, it was hardly any time at all. Emi kept doing her job, though, and tried not to think about it.

She just hoped she could do enough in time.

—

 **A/N: Hey, everyone! I'm baaaaack~! I finally picked up the inspiration to continue! Now, I'm already trying to think of a basic plot for a sequel, because I personally feel there aren't enough stories about Asura. It's very unfortunate for me that Asura isn't a well-liked character by most, especially since he's my favorite…..;-;**

 **Anywho, I'm gonna get the poll started now, because why the fuck not.**

 **Asura x Emilia, yes or no? If you care, leave a comment with an answer. If you're unsure, wait for more chapters, you can answer whenever. The poll ends once this story is completed, as the pairing definitely wouldn't start until the sequel.**

 **Happy reading!**


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